The Legend Of Bagger Byrne Blame the caddie for the oversight that cost Woosie two precious shots

With Ian Woosnam, starts are everything. The wee Welshman beganhis Sunday round at Royal Lytham by stiffing a six-iron to withina pint glass of the hole. Take that, you damn par-3 1st. Hekicked in his birdie putt and stood at seven under par. No scorewas lower. David Duval was standing on Royal Lytham's secluded1st tee, cooling his heels, fixing his shades, trailing by one.

Woosie, 43, had won a major, the Masters, a decade ago. He hadmade his millions. The only really important thing left for himto do in golf was win his national championship. That, and playone more Ryder Cup at home. Then he could just about retire.

The hour before his tee time was frenzied. On the practice tee hewas still experimenting with drivers, undecided about which oneto use. The reps were fussing over him. Finally, he settled on aclub, went to the practice green, removed the headcover from his42-inch putter and stroked putts. Peter Coleman, BernhardLanger's caddie, was standing beside him.

"No you're not," Coleman said. "We're off at 2:25." Langer andDuval were the last twosome. Woosnam was playing with Germany'sAlex Cejka in the penultimate pairing.

Woosnam looked at his caddie of the last 10 weeks, Myles Byrne,and asked, "What time are we?"

There are certain caddie essentials. Knowing a player's tee timeis an essential. So is counting your player's clubs on the 1sttee. A caddie must be able to count to 14. It's a jobrequirement.

Woosnam made it to the 1st tee with three minutes to spare.Byrne, 25, got around to counting the clubs on the 2nd. "You'regoing to go ballistic," Byrne said to Woosnam as he prepared totee off on number 2. "We have two drivers in the bag." Fifteenclubs, one over the limit.

That birdie on the 1st? It was now a bogey, with the automatictwo-shot penalty. Niclas Fasth had birdied the 7th, so Woosnamnow trailed by two. In Oswestry, Wales, Harold Woosnam, Ian'sfather, watching on television, suddenly felt ill. At theWoodbrook Golf Club, on the south side of Dublin, where Byrne andhis two older brothers, both European tour caddies, got theirtraining, the head pro, Billy Kinsella, felt ill. All over theworld, people felt ill. "I felt like I had been kicked in theteeth," Woosnam said. "I felt like picking it up and walking in."

He played on, but in a daze. He bogeyed the 3rd hole and the 4th.It was an uphill climb from there. Although he got within twostrokes of the lead with a birdie at the 13th, Woosnam trailed bythree or four shots for most of the back nine and finished in atie for third place, four shots behind.

You may say it is the golfer's responsibility to know how manyclubs he has. It is not, not with tour caddies earning $1,000 aweek plus 5% of their players' hefty pay. Caddying is aprofession. "That's what you pay a caddie for," Woosnam said, andhe is correct. The golfer has other things to think about.

For 14 years Woosnam had the same caddie, Phill (Wobbly) Morbey,who counted his man's clubs on the 1st tee before every round. InMarch the two parted ways, amicably. Wobbly went to work for JoseMaria Olazabal, and Byrne, an experienced tour caddie, went towork for Woosnam.

"He's a good caddie; I'm not going to sack him," Woosie said onSunday evening. That's what Jean Van de Velde said about hislooper, Christophe Angiolini, following their triple-bogeydebacle on the 72nd hole in the British Open at Carnoustie twoyears ago. By the PGA Championship four weeks later, Angioliniwas gone.

Byrne took all the blame at Royal Lytham. "The buck stops withme," he said. That's the correct thing to say, but it won't beenough. Woosman will probably be on the European Ryder Cup teamcome September. The odds on poor Byrne making it are long. A manhad a chance to win his national championship, and now thatchance is gone.

COLOR PHOTO: JOHN BIEVER "I felt like I had been kicked in the teeth," said Woosnam (above, right, with Byrne) of the blunder.